1. Field
The following description relates to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) Configuration Access Protocol (CAP), and more particularly, to employing XCAP in which XCAP is extended to manage user setting information registered in a server, and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rapid development of signaling protocols, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) standard has been established by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). SIP standard technology has been employed as core technology for multimedia application services in next-generation network environments such as 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), 3GPP2, and Next Generation Network (NGN). It appears that the future of Internet Protocol (IP)-based multimedia application services is centered on standardizing SIP standard technology.
Various messaging services such as Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and electronic mail are widely used by Internet users. Instant Messaging (IM) is one of the most popular messaging services and is capable of transmitting multimedia data as well as text (similar to MMS), and exchanging messages in real time, unlike electronic mail.
Presence Service (PS) is a network service which accepts, stores, and receives information corresponding to a presence of particular users at remote sites on the Internet. PS also may provide various information including whether users are presently able to participate in real-time communication, which services are available, what the users are presently doing, and how the users feel at any given moment. PS service enables a user of a real-time service, such as an IM service, to determine whether to send a message by providing the user with information on whether another user at a remote site on the Internet is presently capable of receiving the message. Thus, a presence-based IM service is a very useful means of exchanging various multimedia data between on-line users in real time.
Currently, the presence-based IM service is used by most Internet users and provided by various service providers in the form of a messenger service that is integrated with various supplementary services. However, the presence-based IM service does not support communication between users of different messenger services. In order to support interoperation of different messenger services, an international Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol (IMPP) standard is needed. Research into establishing an IMPP standard is being actively conducted by the IETF. In particular, research into utilizing SIP as IMPP is being conducted by the SIMPLE (SIP instant messaging and presence leveraging extension) working group.
IMPP service is being standardized by the IETF IMPP working group and the SIMPLE working group. The IMPP working group was organized to define a protocol and a data format to provide the IMPP service, which entails defining an IMPP service model, requirements of an IMPP service model, data formats of messages exchanged between systems, and so on.
The SIMPLE working group was organized to utilize SIP as IMPP, and is the most active IMPP-related working group. SIP is being considered by communication service providers to provide an IP phone service. Since SIP is utilized by NGN, Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), and 3GPP standards, integrating SIP with IP phone service is feasible, and a separate protocol for IMPP is not needed.
In addition, the SIMPLE working group is researching an extended data format with regard to presence information, partial presence information notification, presence information filtering, message session setting for IM service, and XCAP-related techniques to manage user setting information of particular services.
In particular, XCAP was devised to enable clients to utilize data stored in a server in XML form. User setting information regarding particular application services is stored in an XCAP server in XML and managed directly by an XCAP client using Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to access the XCAP server. In XCAP, three types of HTTP methods, i.e., GET, PUT and DELETE, are used, and HTTP Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) mapping is necessary to handle particular user setting information within an XML document.
Where the XCAP client requests the XCAP server for a resource, the location of the resource is commonly represented using a Universal Resource Locator (URL). However, dynamically generated information, such as search results of a search engine, cannot be expressed using URLs. Therefore, a dynamic document is requested by using an URI which includes both a URL and a user query. Generally, a URL only indicates the location of a resource, but a URI includes a factor to be transmitted to the location of the resource. A URL can be regarded as a special form of URI.
With the rapid development of signaling and networking technologies, it is expected that a presence service to express a present status of users will be developed to support communication between users of different messenger services. It is also expected that interest in XCAP standard technology, which was developed to provide the IMPP service and provides a basic mechanism which is applicable to various Internet applications as well as IMPP service, will increase. Since most Internet applications employ XML, it is expected that practical use of XCAP standard technology will greatly increase.